Reflections of a reluctant Smart Music user

Of note this year is the move by the band and strings groups to using Smart Music in a more intensive way. Made possible by the school purchasing Smart Music licenses for every student and intentionally focusing on the use of Smart Music as an integral part of the teaching process. Taking advantage of the school 1:1 laptop program, this has meant the students can all have access to Smart Music whenever it is needed at school or at home.

A great benefit of this is that this has eliminated long lines in the practice rooms, and the need to students to stay after school to complete assignments if they had not purchased a Smart Music subscription. Another major change has been the discontinuation of a paper practice journal, replaced by a Smart Music practice assignment.

As the Middle School Beginning Band teacher, in the past I have not put much emphasis on the use of Smart Music beyond making sure my students can use it to complete their assignments so that they had the skills needed when they move up to the Intrada Band. My feeling was that initially it was not much use to the beginners as they did not yet have enough control of their instrument to benefit in a meaningful way from what Smart Music offers.

This year we introduced Smart Music into Beginning Band much earlier that we normally do due to the changes in the way we are using Smart Music. Initial attempts were dramatic, mostly red notes and high scores of 2%! Reassuring the students that I would not be grading their Smart Music assignments (yet). Feeling smug that I was probably right in my assessment of its usefulness for the beginners; and thinking that I would just make sure that they know how to use it, and encourage them to integrate it into their practice time to help them create good habits for when they transfer into Intrada Band I decided to get back to helping them play. However a month later and their scores were now in the 60% to 80% range and they are enthusiastically talking about how they are using it at home to improve their playing I realize I may have underestimated its value for the beginners.

Initially in class I focus on breathing and making a good strong sound. Then once we have started to master that I have them quickly learn the first six notes. We can then spend time working our way through exercises that strengthen their tone, technique and breathing. One of the reasons I do this is so that they have something more interesting to play than the earlier exercises in the book, and it is more motivating as they feel like they are making progress.

Smart Music helps the beginners to move from merely practicing what we have been doing in class to actively learning while they practice. Smart Music allows them to:

1) Listen to their part before playing, this allows them to hear the music in their head which makes it easier to find the notes

2) Play along with their own part, accompanied or a click track

3) Click on a note to see the fingering

4) Forces them to match the speed which helps with Music reading, fingering recall, reaction speeds etc

5) Practice keeping on time, maintaining a constant speed throughout

6) Receive immediate feedback

7) See their progress as they improve

For myself as a teacher there are also advantages, for example

1) To move from the Beginning Band to the Intrada Band students need to audition for the Intrada Band teacher. Smart Music allows us to pre-audition the students to determine the best time for them to audition.

2) Allows for other Music teachers to offer diagnostic help if I have a student struggling

3) There are more options for reporting progress to parents

4) I can listen to their submitted assignments and provide feedback to them on the work they are doing at home. Then I can reassign the assignment and ask the student to resubmit based on my feedback.

5) I feel that I know my students better this year as I can hear them where they are at and plan more effectively to meet their learning needs in class.

Other classes/Teachers use Smart Music to

• Set a sight reading challenge, students get one chance to play a new piece and see how well they do.
• Set targeted and guided practice
• Reassign assignments to see how much a student has improved
• Use an assignment as a formative assessment, then once the student has had time to master the skills, the assignment is modified and reposted as a summative assessment.  

Miss Weldon says...

“I use it in all of my classes for practicing. Each week they have a smartmusic practice log where I can see what they've practiced and when. They also have playing assessments about every other week where I can hear how they are doing in their concert pieces so I can help them in class. It's totally changed my class and has been so effective!”

Beginning Band is a crash course in playing an instrument, and our of our goals is to transition the students into the full Band. One of the ways that this occurs is we take the beginning Band students into the Intrada Band for part or all of a number of lessons. This allows them to see what the band is like and the expectations of a band class. Smart Music allows us to take this integration phase one step further. The Beginning Band students can also join the Intrada Band Smart Music Class and thus see what their current assignments are, they can practice the same assignments and even submit them in Smart Music. This is very motivating for the students as they can set goals for their practice times.

Overall Smart Music has proven itself to be a valuable tool in helping the students to master their instruments, providing a versatile assessment tool both for teachers and the students. It has allowed students to more easily identify their weak areas and address these through targeted practice while providing support to them through helpful features and immediate feedback at home.

While at the start I would have said that I was a reluctant Smart Music user, I can now see the benefit to the students as they use it as a tool to improve their playing and prepare themselves to move to the next Band.

For more information contact you friendly Band or Strings teacher, they will be happy to tell you more about this amazing resource and how it can benefit your playing

Photographing cells using microscopes and iPads

For our G6 "Cells, Organs, and Organ Systems" unit, students have learned how to use compound microscopes to magnify a world invisible to the naked eye.  We have practiced carefully drawing the cells we have observed, but these drawings can never fully capture the amazing things we are seeing.  This year, thanks to the lending of iPads from the PE department, students have been able to actually take photos of their cell specimens by placing the iPad camera against the eye piece of their microscope.  Students are then able to Airdrop these images to their computers, where they can be posted to their G6 science blogs.  Stay tuned for more information on how students are using blogging to share their learning with their peers and family members.  Parents, keep an eye out for an invitation to view your child's blog! 

BrainPop

In 6th Grade Facegroups, we are studying Digital Citizenship.  To facilitate this, a website called "BrainPop" was used.  Students began this unit by learning how to make (and not make) an internet search.  A short video was watched, and then students created their own "mind map" to demonstrate what they had learned.  Interactive games followed making internet research applicable and interesting.  This lesson will assist students who are currently researching topics for the Egyptian projects in Humanities classes.

Hip Hop Dabbing in Algebra

It always amazes me with what becomes popular or what videos go viral on the internet.  These last couple of months the 8th grade students have been obsessed with Dabbing.  This type of dance move is actually pretty simple.  Lift one are in the air and bring your head down into your other arm like you are sneezing.

I realized that this would be a great math problem.  I decided to use dabbing as a warm-up for finding slope.  Students had to take a picture of their dab and then find the slope of their dab.  They used google drawing to overlay grid paper so they could come up with two points.  From there, they could find the slope.  It was awesome, because students were then talking about what a zero slope dab would look like and an undefined dab.  They were using Algebra vocabulary to describe their dab.  Below are some pictures of students dabbing.

Reflecting on our Children's Book Reading performances

8th Grade TAPS students are working on applying a variety of public speaking skills (listed on the rubric below) through the context of reading to a Grade 2 book buddy.  This is part of their first unit of work that is spread across their semester in TAPS (Theater and Public Speaking), recording progress over four reading sessions.

Students collected video footage of their most recent reading performance, viewed this footage and then using this unit's rubric, graded themselves on the basis of their observations. 

Students then justified their decisions beneath the rubric, unpacking why they made the grading decisions they made.

I also viewed their performance footage, marked their rubric and gave them specific feedback, both positive and constructive, which students will be able to use and build on, in subsequent reading sessions.  Students also compared and contrasted their evaluation with mine, and note correlations and differences. 
  

Teacher's evaluation and comments

 Student's self-evaluation and comments

Orchestra and technology

Both band and orchestra have purchased an amazing program called SmartMusic that analyses the students playing. As they practice, the software analyses their intonation and rhythms and shows them where they played correctly and incorrectly.  This software can record students playing along with the electronic orchestra accompanist in the background and then students can listen back to what they just played so they can figure out their "trouble spots" in the music we play in class. It's basically like a private tutor at home! 

Every week the students should be practicing for 18 minutes-5 days a week on smartmusic in order to practice effectively and obtain good scores on their weekly practice log assignments.  I also assign many playing assessments so the students can really understand their music. This tool maximises the students learning outcomes and is very effective as it gives immediate direct feedback.

While we have been doing chair-placements, students have also been working on composing a presentation using either google docs or prezi about a specific composer, they have been collaborating in groups and have been coming up with creative ideas! Exciting things happening in the orchestra program this semester! :) 

Pear Deck Gives Instant Feedback

In 8th Grade Humanities we are using Pear Deck, an interactive presentation software, to give students an opportunity to instantly respond to questions and prompts. In the pictures below Students were given 2 minutes to draw an illustration showing what they learned from the Immigration Simulation. The beauty of Pear Deck is that students receive a google document telling them everything they drew or wrote during the lesson. Any notes they took are instantly saved in their Google Drive!

Create Using Piktochart

In 8th Grade Humanities we are having students create digital infographics using a website called piktochart. Students were given instructions to research immigration into the United States in the early 1900s. They then needed to list the push and pull factors that may cause them to leave their homeland and come to the U.S.A. Doing this digitally allows students to insert pictures that they find on the web, as well as use other graphics to help communicate what they have found.

What is happening in 7th and 8th grade art class.

If you have a son or daughter in 7th or 8th grade this is what we have worked on in the first unit. Students learned how to design and sketch out models in google sketchup, and created a 3-D rendering of a lidded vessel.  The objectives were to make a lidded vessel that fit together in both form and function.  The students 3-D renderings are now being printed.

7th grade standards met. 

VA:Cr1.1.7a: Apply methods to overcome creative blocks.

VA:Pr4.1.7a: Compare and contrast how technologies have changed the way artwork is preserved, presented, and experienced. 8th Grade Standards met. VA:Cr1.1.8a: Document early stages of the creative process visually and/or verbally in traditional or new media. VA:Cr2.1.8a: Demonstrate willingness to experiment, innovate, and take risks to pursue ideas, forms, and meanings that emerge in the process of art-making or designing. The process of printing the projects.

7th Grade Humanities Students have Fun Improving Vocabulary

      Students in 7th grade Humanities are required to learn a new set of vocabulary terms, related to a theme in Social Studies and/or Language Arts, each quarter. Mr. White and Mrs. Ross are always looking for new and interesting ways to help the students review the terms on a weekly basis. More recently, they tried Quizlet.live. It's a fun way for students to practice recognizing the definitions, working as a team, and competing with their classmates. Once students are logged in, the program automatically puts them into teams, each one named after an animal. Once the game begins, the students must work together to find the correct definition for each term. Thus, the "race begins" as they can watch live progress of their teams as they play. The fastest one with all the correct answers wins! It's a fast-paced, effective, and exciting way to review vocabulary and use technology in the classroom.

Online with ViewPure

Some parents concern about the video teachers posted online and worry that their children may watch something else other than the requested ones.  Thanks to the technology and educational apps.  We tried to use the viewpure to view the video that we used for our first Chinese journal recently. Students are learning how to write a book/video review and express their feelings in journal.  We are happy to use the view pure and make sure everyone is watching the same screen when they are doing their assignments.

Using "Pear Deck" to Foster Authentic and Meaningful Conversations in Facegroup

The question I posed to my 8th graders in Facegroup was:

"It is easier to be kind than it is to be harsh." Do you agree or disagree?

 Using an online classroom app called "Pear Deck", the girls were able to drag a blue dot somewhere on the spectrum between 100% Agree and 100% Disagree. Then, once all girls had answered, I revealed their answers on the screen. In live time, their answers registered. Very quickly we saw that we had a wide range of views on this!

We would never had discovered this if we had had this discussion another way! Using this app, it was safe for the girls to share what they truly thought. They weren't raising their hands in front of their peers or being the only one with a certain view point. By using Pear Deck, they were able to make their own choice, free from peer-influence. THEN we were able to use that as a springboard to have a discussion on why they placed their dot where they did.

Why do you think it is easier for us to be harsh with one another?
What makes it hard for us to be kind?

We ended Facegroup time with each girl drawing a picture (also in Pear Deck!) that represented something 8th graders could do to be more kind to one another.

Pear Deck allowed us to have discussions that would have been very difficult to have otherwise.

Check out this 50 second video that explains what else Pear Deck can do:

 

Gr 6 visit Grade 1 students

The four classes of Grade 6 Humanities classes have visited the four Grade 1 classes to share their information learned in their Ancient Egypt units. The Gr6 students take their laptops and the resource webpage for Daily Life in Ancient Egypt and the Gr1 students have a simpler magnified copy of the same worksheet used by Gr6. With their buddy they discuss the issues of Egyptian life. When Gr6 return to the MS side, they write a thank you note on padlet.com to their buddy and include the selfie photo taken.http://padlet.com/autyr/Thanks1A

Exploring and Investigating Using Web-based Simulations

In our Weather and Climate unit, students investigated the impact of carbon dioxide on temperature by "introducing" carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and analyzing graphs. In this simulation, students observed how greenhouse gases trap infrared radiation (heat), which in turn, increases temperature.

Recently, in our Space Science unit, 7th grade students explored the lunar cycle. Here, they're taking an initial look at the way the moon is lit, so that they can begin to understand the phases of the moon.

This year, the use of laptops in the science classroom has enabled students to use models (one of our Science and Engineering Practices) to aid their understanding of concepts, and explore and investigate using simulations.

Public Service Announcements

8th grade TAPS students planned and produced a short television Public Service Announcement in groups, with the purpose of reaching a specific target audience in order to persuade, change an attitude, belief or behavior, inform an audience of a risk or help an audience care about a topic or issue that they have the power to change or fix.

Unit objectives included:

• Using persuasive skills to compel the audience to feel called to action or change their behavior or viewpoint regarding a topic that truly matters
• Intentionally targeting a particular audience in purposeful ways and analyzing how their methods specifically impacted that group of people
• Creating a video performance that is polished, well-timed, creative and sincere

Here are two PSA's below, that are relevant, sincere and are executed effectively.  The first outlines the dangers of cyberbullying and how we can respond.  The second centers on Breaking Gender Stereotypes.




Catherine Widdifield

Quizizz 6th Grade Math

In 6th Grade Math we have been using Quizizz.  It is an online platform that allows students to work through problems at their own pace.  The program is similar to Kahoot, but students can also work on problems at home.  The fun part about Quizizz is that students earn points for correct answers and they compete with their classmates.

Podcasting the Passion Week of Jesus

For our final unit in 8th grade Bible we have the opportunity to study the Passion Week of Jesus.  This year I wanted to experiment with our process of understanding the events leading to the crucifixion of Jesus.   To do this, we completed a unit long group project of podcasting.  

We are able to record the podcasts using audio-techica mics

How We Did it...

GarageBand is our Recording tool!

Students were tasked within their group of creating a news team that would be reporting live from Jerusalem during the Passover week.  Each day in class a report was presented to the class, a "State of Jerusalem" if you will, that presented the events of the city in relation to the "prophet" Jesus.  Students were required to retell the events of the day, investigate three questions that arose as they heard the report and analyze one element of the events that would help them come to a greater understanding of the day. 
For each of the 7 lessons, students would write out their word for word scripts, prepared for recording just in case.  Their scripts were written on Google Drive, which allowed me to give instant feedback on what they were writing.  This way there was no guess work on what was expected.  All of this information collected and created would be presented in a podcast that was recorded in class.  

The following recordings are some exemplars that were recorded live in class.  Enjoy!

Sunday Report by Podcast Infusion

Monday Report by R.E. 

Tuesday Report by Rise

Thursday Report by Brought to Light

Good Friday Report by Last Week

Good Friday Report by Emmanuel

Crucifixion by EPM Radio

Crucifixion by What Do You Think?

In 6th grade Bible, we have used the GLO program (provided on laptops for every Middle School student) to enhance understanding of the culture, setting and background for the Old Testament. Recently, we read through the book of Ruth and these were some of these images included in the lessons. What a great way to bring ancient history to life! Students are better able to personally connect to the content and find relevance to the culture of that time. Ask your 6th grader some of the following questions about the images and see how much they can teach you!

 A threshing floor- this image is actually a "virtual tour" on GLO and can be further investigated for additional information. Why would Boaz and his men have slept on the threshing floor? We also talked about threshing floors in our Judges study. Why was Gideon threshing wheat in a winepress?

 A wheat field and reaping practices- Why was Ruth's willingness to gather barley such a sacrifice and demonstration of loyalty to Naomi?

 Fields of Moab- Why did Naomi and her family travel to Moab?

The City Gate- What was a city gate used for? How many elders were required to make up a full council?

8th grade students learning and being assessed on their painting knowledge.

Here are a number of videos and posters that our 8th grade students created. They needed to create a public service announcement telling how we, as members of the global community, can get involved in issues of justice or oppression in the world.

A field trip to Washington D.C.

Our 8th grade humanities classes recently "travelled" to Washington D.C. to take a virtual tour of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I have personally visited the museum twice and it is an unforgettable experience. It was incredible to watch my students "tour" the museum and see (on this side of the ocean) the exact same artifacts and exhibits I visited.

We were able to completely change the tone of our conversations. Instead of just talking about the events of the Holocaust, they now had images to associate with them. There is something sobering about seeing the actual "stars of David" worn by Jewish victims, the milk cans buried in the ghettos that preserved the memories of the Jewish families who lived there, and countless photographs and stories of Holocast survivors.

Our students live in a small world after all. This generation of students, more than any generation before them, is able to learn about the world, its cultures, and history in a dynamic way due to the technology available to them.

A field trip from Hong Kong to Washington D.C., USA.
All in a day's work.

Dance in PE

In the grade 6 dance unit the students are discovering different types of dance ranging from modern hip hop, waltz, to swing dance. Students not only work on timing, balance, coordination, teamwork, and cooperation, but also learn how the tempo and speed of the song affects the dance. For waltz in particular, students learnt how do the same steps while altering their body movements and posture to match the music, while dancing to a modern pop song, classical music, and musical theatre melodies. In the video below, the students are waltzing in "musical theatre style" to Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast, which was a favourite as many of them participated or watched the musical earlier this year.

6th Grade TAPS

TAPS Grade 6

We are currently in our story telling unit in Grade 6. For this unit, students are learning how to use facial expressions, voice, and body language to appropriately tell an engaging children's story.

Sometimes it can be difficult for students to effectively communicate through their posture and body language as well as their words. That is why we have been using our Mac books video functions. Students get the opportunity to see how they would appear to others by filming their attempts. Alongside teacher feedback and guidance, students can now get immediate self-feedback as well.

Two students enthusiastically telling a story while filming.

Students can monitor how they improve as they go, this helps them to strive for success. 

Two students watching themselves tell the story. Observing what they are doing well and what they could change.

Students writing out self-evaluations in the form of a P.I.P. Positive Improvement Positive. And setting goals for the following class.